Meadows Center hires Texas ad legend for campaign

The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment has recruited Austin advertising legend Roy Spence to develop an advertising campaign promoting water conservation. The Meadows Center is funding the preliminary research and creative development campaign, with support from the Ewing Halsell Foundation, according to Meadows Center officials. 

Spence has experience with other conservation-focused advertising campaigns in Texas, including the famous “Don't Mess With Texas” campaign.

“The idea for this campaign stemmed from an order from the Legislature in 2007 asking the Texas Water Development Board to implement a statewide water conservation public awareness program to educate residents of this state about water conservation,” said Anna Huff, communications manager for the Meadows Center. “Furthermore, the rapidly expanding population of Texas is causing many of our existing water resources to become overburdened. We hope to create a campaign that will resonate with audiences across Texas and shift how they value water.”

The Meadows Center is paying $84,000 for the campaign's initial phases, with support from the Ewing Halsell Foundation, Huff said.

Water supplies are often in the headlines in Central Texas, especially during times of drought when water use is restricted. Recently, two water projects have become prominent issues along and near the Interstate 35 corridor. Electro Purification's production permit application that would allow it to produce 912.5 million gallons of water, drawing from the Middle Trinity Aquifer. Hays County Precinct 3 Commissioner Lon Shell has written to the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, the body in charge of approving Electro Purification's permit, requesting a contested case hearing on the permit. The Alliance Regional Water Authority recently struck a deal with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority to help develop a 26.8 million gallon-per-day groundwater project in Caldwell and Gonzales counties that would pipe water from the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer and deliver it to water customers in Caldwell, Hays, Guadalupe and Comal Counties. The partnership, in which the two water entities will share a treatment plant and transmission system, will save $60 million and leave a smaller environmental footprint.